


Black outs, Burn outs

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Animal Traits, Animal Transformation, Blackouts, Exhaustion, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, I'm Bad At Tagging, Injury Recovery, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 03:45:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18842959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: After a battle goes unusually wrong, the Titans retreat to an abandoned hotel to lick their wounds and recover for whatever the next day would bring, but when a blackout drives the entire place into darkness, the team are forced to deal with the freezing cold temperatures of the winter, but despite some hesitation and a fear of hurting everyone, they make it work.(AKA the hotel has no power and once Garfield gets his tiger in check, everyone stops panicking about injuries and Dick stops carrying on about better planning, they bundle themselves in blankets and prepares for whatever the next day brings.)





	Black outs, Burn outs

The room was dark and cold, a similar situation to the rest of their lodging, and they were all beaten and broken and so very tired. They had barely settled in for the night when all the lights had gone out, the heating had stopped working and not a single one of them could figure out how to fix it.

“Are you sure you can’t turn the power back on?” Rachel asked quietly and Dick shook his head in defeat. She sighed and hugged her arms closer in an effort to stay warm on a particularly frosty winter night. Kory was leaning against Dick’s shoulder, Rachel on his other side and Garfield, whose reasoning was confusing even to himself, was sitting against the opposite wall with his head down.

A magnitude of blankets was bundled around them, as well as all the hoodies, jackets, beanies, fuzzy socks and woollen knitwear they could pay for. Kory, bless her, was trying her hardest to keep the room warm, but even Dick saw that she was tired and sore and he ran a comforting hand down her back. “Get some sleep, Kory. You’ve earned it.”

Rubbing her nose, Kory buried her face into Dick’s shoulder, her way of declining his offer. “You know I can’t.” It was true- her heat was the only thing keeping the room one degree away from too-freezing. “I’ll be fine.”

Sighing, Garfield banged the back of his head on the wall he was leaning against. “Well, this sucks.” He said, summing up the situation. There was still a thin trail of blood dribbling down from his nose and he absentmindedly wiped it away, smearing it across his face in the process.

“Gar, go get cleaned up.” Dick insisted half-heartedly but rolled his eyes when Garfield didn’t move. “We all got beat pretty badly today. We should all be sleeping in a bed. Not on the floor.”

“I don’t think I can move,” Garfield mumbled, wrapping one arm around his middle and Dick glanced over at him in worry. “I’m so tired.”

There was a bandage wrapped around Rachel’s upper arm and she picked at it absentmindedly as she stared at the floor. “She was a bitch. I’m glad she’s in prison.” It was no secret that Rachel was bitter about the fight- she had been trapped in a separate room while her friends were battered and bruised as they fought her. Her name was something long and convoluted and they hadn’t even bothered to remember it.

Kory hummed in agreement as she snuggled closer to Dick and wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. “She deserves everything she gets. Serves her right for being a fucking bitch.”

Rolling his eyes, Dick glanced over at Garfield. Apart for himself, who suffered a few cuts, bruises and a sprained ankle and Kory, who had at least one broken rib and a dislocated shoulder that Dick wasn’t too worried about because she healed quick, Garfield had suffered the most damage during their fight. “You sure you’re ok Gar?”

“Peachy,” Garfield muttered, his head hitting the back wall. His hair fell in sweat-slick strands down his face and his skin was a lighter shade than it normally was. Every now and then, his face would morph into that of a tiger before shifting back into Garfield with a slightly sickly green tint to his skin that would eventually fade. “Never been better.”

“You look like shit,” Rachel said, her eyes betraying the touches of humour in her words as she looked her friend up and down. “You sure you’re alright? Did you get hurt and didn’t tell us?”

“Nothing that you didn’t see, don’t worry,” Garfield reassured, huddling closer into himself. He wrapped his arms tighter around himself. “I’m fine.”

Dick frowned and moved his leg in an attempt to hit Garfield on the foot but fell short. “Why don’t you come over here? Huddle for warmth and all that.”

“We all know Kory’s hot enough for all of us.” Garfield joked but his voice was strained.

“Damn right,” Kory muttered, taking one arm out of the sleeve of her jacket and wrapped it all around Dick and Rachel’s shoulders so Rachel could put her other arm in and make a blanket for the trio. “But you’d be better off over here.”

“I know,” Garfield shivered and lowered his face. “it’s just… the tiger is angry. He’s mad that I didn’t fight better tonight, and thinks I should have drawn more blood.” He gulped and tried to become one with the wall. “he’s hungry. I don’t really… I think I’ll stay here. At least for now.”

Rachel leaned closer into Dick and buried her nose into his shoulder, keeping her eyes on Garfield. “I thought you said you could control it now. And you weren’t going to call it a ‘he’ so you didn’t get attached.” None of it was a question but they all knew what she meant.

Pulling a blanket up to her chin, Kory put in, “And apparently you two are talking know? I didn’t think you spoke tiger.”

“It’s not so much talking, it's more like… impressions. Feelings. Like your stomach rumbles when it’s hungry or your body shuts down when you’re scared.” Garfield explained but turned his head away mid-sentence when thick green fur sprouted along his nose and he grimaced at it. “And I can control it, but it’s still a part of me. Sometimes it feels like the tiger is controlling me more than I’m controlling him.”

Sighing, Dick looked Garfield up and down, shivering and wrapped in a single blanket. “Take another blanket, Gar. If you’re worried about hurting us, then warm up.”

Garfield shook his head. “Sometimes I turn into the tiger when I sleep. He’ll keep me warm, with all the fur. Sometimes when I put too many blankets or jackets, he gets annoyed because he’s overheating.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that,” Kory muttered. “An angry tiger. Great.” Dick elbowed her in the side and she rolled his eyes. “Are you sure you’ve patched yourself up enough Gar? You took a beating today.”

“Rachel healed me a little bit when we got here,” Garfield reassured. “I’m all good.”

“I couldn’t heal the burns though,” Rachel said and Dick frowned at the new information. Garfield shifted, uncomfortable with the scrutiny. “You should have Dick take a look at them before you fall asleep. I don’t want them to get infected or worse.”

Before Garfield could reply or Dick could move towards him, he had to turn his head aside quickly as a low growl escaped his throat as his nose elongated into a snout. He hid his face in the blanket as the fur faded from his cheekbones.  When he reappeared, he was pouting. “Wow, he’s in a really bad mood. He’s never tried to… force his way out.” He looked around the room as if searching for an answer and when he settled on one, he frowned. “Maybe he’s hungry. We haven’t eaten in a while.”

“Wait, you have to feed both you _and_ the fucking tiger?” Kory asked and Garfield nodded with a shrug. “Is that why you always eat so much?”

“He’s already pissed off because I don’t feed him meat, so I basically have to eat for three.” Garfield shrugged again like it was no big deal. “It’s fine, I don’t mind.” He nodded to Rachel. “What about you? Did you have someone look at your wounds at all?”

“It’s just my arm.” Rachel rolled her eyes. “And Dick already bandaged it- see?” She held up her arm and waved it about as if Garfield couldn’t’ already see the bandage across the room. “Are you sure you shouldn’t… I don’t know. Go hunting for food or something?”

Snorting, Kory wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders, scrunching up her face as the fluff tickled her nose. “I think the closest he’s going to get to a full course vegan meal out here is what’s leftover in the vending machine outside.”

“Very funny,” Garfield said, cradling his arm closer to his chest, trying to get the pain in his entire body to stop pulsating. “You should think about going into stand up. You know, if the whole murderous vigilante thing doesn’t hold up.”

Kory frowned. “Stand up?”

Hurriedly, Dick put his hand out to stop the conversation before it could get any further. “Alright, quit it. I think my brains' about to split in two and I’m not sure if it’s from the fight or just the two of you bickering.” Beside him, Kory rolled her eyes and begrudgingly fell silent. Garfield did too, but that was probably only because he thought he had won, a smug grin plastered across his face. “What are we doing here? What’s our game plan?”

Rachel glanced over at him and for a moment her humorous expression flickered to one of worry. “Plan? Why would we have a plan? You’re the leader, aren’t you the one supposed to come up with the plans?”

After a stagnant pause, Dick looked like he was about to object, but Kory came to his rescue with a hand on Rachel’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, tonight we can rest and in the morning we’ll come up with something to do. Dick can call Donna or something, I don’t know.”

“I’m not the leader,” Dick argued lightly, “We all come up with decisions and make choices as a group.” He looked over at Kory. “Don’t we?”

Rolling his eyes, Garfield snuggled up closer to the window. “Who cares who makes the rules. All I know is that we need to stop getting into fights like that- especially if we’re just lining up to get our asses kicked.”

“I agree,” Kory said, eyeing Garfield again as his face momentarily morphed into that of a green-furred tiger before rearranging back into himself. He was still shivering. “Listen, Gar, if you don’t come over here and get under these blankets then I’m going to go over to sit beside you.”

Garfield looked taken aback. “But- the tiger, it’s…”

“I don’t give a flying fuck about your tiger,” Kory sighed, voice sharp yet filled with nothing but care. “If I have to watch your miserable ass shake alone in that corner then I’m going to set this whole damn place on fire just to make you stop. So you get your ass over here.”

Reluctantly, Garfield picked himself up off the floor and limped his way over to the others, who immediately made room for him and buried him under the many fuzzy blankets. He didn’t say anything, but deep in his chest he rumbled a heavy purr, so at least the tiger was satisfied. Rachel rested her head on his shoulder. “I hate to say it, but I think Gar’s right,” Rachel murmured.

“Hold up, why do you hate to say it?” Garfield protested but Kory slapped him weakly in the shoulder and he fell silent.

“I think we need to figure out what we’re getting into before we run headfirst towards it,” Rachel continued as if Garfield hadn’t spoken and he pouted comically. “I’m not sure if I- _we_ \- can take any more hits like this one. I feel like my insides are trying to become my outsides.”

Nodding thoughtfully, Dick pursed his lips. “You’re right. We need to be more careful when going into things like that, especially if we don’t know what we’re up against. I would like to avoid getting my face smashed in the future.”

Humming, Kory rested a purple nailed hand on Dick’s shoulder, having to reach over both Rachel and Garfield who was snuggled tightly together between them and smiled. “You worry too much. We’ve been winging it the whole time so far and we’re not dead yet. Would it really be so bad if we don’t change anything?”

“I like having organs,” Rachel put in, “And working lungs, and my brain as a solid instead of mush, and I like my heart beating blood around my body. Did I mention I like my bones the way they are? I’m very attached to them.”

As they continued to argue, Garfield cut in with a breathy laugh-laden with something heavier. “Guys,” he interrupted. “I’m fucking _exhausted.”_

Laughing, Rachel pulled the blanket closer around their bodies as Dick and Kory exchanged a cryptic glance over their heads and Garfield fell asleep under all the attention, and eventually the cold wasn’t as cold and the darkness wasn’t as dark, and they all fell asleep in each other’s embrace, ready to face whatever the morning threw at them.


End file.
